It was 1964 so I must have been still at school. The rot set in early!
Bruce West – Guitar; Rod Braxton – Guitar, Ernie Balding – Vocals/ Guitar And me – Vocals. I think there was also a mandolin player called Alan but he’s not on this splendid picture.
We had one gig at the Hornsey Conservative Association’s ‘Candlelight Soiree’. This was the one and only live performance by this band. It was a good time (even though the people at the table looked faintly horrified!) and a time of learning.
One of Bruce’s friends suggested I try playing an autoharp. I was into obscure instruments and it was smaller than a piano so I got one. It kept falling off my lap so a banjo player suggested holding it upright and using a clawhammer technique. That worked.
Nearly every pub around where we lived seemed to have clubs in the back rooms. Different clubs on different nights. Folk; Jazz; Blues; Soul; Rock ‘n’ Roll. My sister and I used to go and sometimes I’d get up and sing at the folk clubs. She was at the same school as Ashley ‘Tyger’ Hutchings and recognised him at most of the clubs.
Gradually I got to know Ashley, who lived around the corner from me, and then Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson and other groups of friends of friends of friends. By this time I had left school. I started to work at a library and decided I’d be a Librarian. To get into Library School I needed 5 ‘O’s and 2 ‘A’s and my librarian career path looked all set.